By Andrea Ramirez, Rock At Night Philadelphia
Venue: Union Transfer, Philadelphia–April 10, 2016
After a very successful and sold out European tour, The Last Shadow Puppets headed straight to another sold out show in Philadelphia headlining the first US tour after a long awaited eight years since their first album release, The Age of the Understatement. Philadelphia was very lucky, the band only had two shows here in the East Coast, Philadelphia and New York City, before heading out to California, Mexico, Japan, and then back to Europe.
The baroque pop band consists of Miles Kane and golden boy Alex Turner who has managed to have quite a few number one albums under his belt along with his other band the Arctic Monkeys. The Last Shadow Puppets are touring in support of their latest album Everything You’ve Come to Expect which was just released earlier this month and reached number one in the UK charts within a matter of days. Trust me these guys are big. They had fans waiting outside the venue as early as 4:30 am, a very long wait since doors opened until 7 that night. The band has everything there is to love- an extremely confident and dazzling duo, along with music that is quite refreshing for today’s indie standards. Their sound is very similar to something you will find in an early 60s B movie soundtrack.
The show opened with beautiful red lighting as violin and cello players took the stage first with an instrumental intro of the song “Black Plant”. With a fully packed venue of screaming fans the band finally made their appearance with the song “Calm Like You”.
The guys looked a bit different than what I remembered. I expected two mop-headed guys channeling a bit of a Beatles persona–instead we got a mix of 70s Elvis and Tom Jones which actually worked. Alex looking like a 70s sex God gave the ladies what they wanted with his twirling moves as his shirt laid half way opened. Miles looked slick and modern with a more rock and roll edge all in black.
Throughout the night Alex would lean into the crowd holding on to his microphone stand and gyrating his hips as Miles pounded on his guitar, at times, swinging it into the crowd or pretending to smash the guitar on stage. One thing for sure, I was afraid Alex would fall into the crowd as it was obvious that he was maybe just a little bit too intoxicated to pull off some of his moves, but he managed to make it through somewhat gracefully after every song as people around me were shouting “you’re almost done, hang in there”. At one point during the song “Bad Habits” opening act Cam Avery, better known as member of the psychedelic rock group Tame Impala, carried Alex on stage. I’m still not sure if that was done for entertainment purposes or out of sympathy for the singer’s painless state. During the encore the band played an amazing rendition of the Beatles song “I Want You (She’s so Heavy)” and closed the show with the song “Standing Next to Me”.
There is a reason why shows are selling out for The Last Shadow Puppets. The music, the production, and its members are everything you’ve come to expect, great music, and great entertainment. Their new album definitely surpasses what we’ve all been eagerly awaiting for the last eight years. Hopefully, next time they will give the US a little more TLC with a few more added dates in other cities.
Members: Alex Turner, Miles Kane, James Ford , Zach Dawes
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